med school vs. CRNA

[ariel26]

Hello,

I'm currently a first year med student who is contemplating a switch into the field of nursing. I want to have more time for myself and my family and feel that nursing is a wonderful career option. Can anyone give me the pros and cons of CRNA schooling and just how competitive is to gain admission??? Thanks so much!!!!!!

[DashEFX]

Is your main concern time or what you are doing?

I am reading these posts confused as hell as I have contemplated the same thing. Of course the CRNAs in my area talk about the hard work during their masters program...however all are very encouraging..time wise to go the crna route.

Time wise I can't see how med school route is shorter. There are ALOT of 1 year accelerated BSN programs...I can direct you to a few if you are interested.(just based on my research). In fact, most of these programs also directed me to ONLINE courses for the prerequisites or what they call Challenge Exams...which eliminates more time as far as I am concerned. Then 2 years for Critical care experience. (which is really more than the mandatory.) And then 24-36 months for the CRNA program...noting that I just looked this up yesterday and it seems that the VAST

[DashEFX]

vast majority are 27months. so that really is 5 years to practice. while med school is 4 years plus 4 years of a residency..if you did anesthesiology...you still have 7 more years..and that's assuming you don't do any fellowships post residency. time wise i think crna is a better choice. (this of course is from a non-nurse perspective).

but i do agree that you have to decide if you are a doctor or a nurse. i read the debate on this discussion board and it was very enlightening to my own decision making.

my two cents....probably worth less on this board. ;-)